09-04-2021 - 15th St Cruise Night On Labor Day Weekend - Part 1

Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the blog. It's been a few weeks since I've gone to a cruise. Mainly, because I've been working so much. But also because I hit a "creative wall" of sorts... As a creative I find it difficult to stay on one subject or style for too long. I get bored of repetitive processes and routines and often drop the things I'm working on to start something new. I like to switch things up and explore my options to creatively express myself. Repetition feels redundant and restricting to me. 

For the past year and a half, I have been focused on lowriding, though. That, for me, is a long time to spend on one subject. Plus, I went from shooting light trails, portraits, cityscapes, supercars, and aerial photography to shooting nothin' but lowriders, over the course of a couple of months. This was a very difficult and confusing process for me, because I was so used to shooting a wide variety of subjects. But lowriders are something that I have loved and appreciated since I was a little kid. And the more I learn about the culture the more I appreciated it. Plus, I've been having fun and the lowrider community has been very embracing and supportive of me and my work. So I started to focused more on the community and all the different aspects of the lowrider culture and lifestyle. This made it easier for me to stay on the subject. But I finally hit that point were I started to feel like things are getting too repetitive and becoming a stagnant routine. So I had to take a moment to consider what lowrider art and photography mean to me. And whether on not I wanted to continue focusing on it or move on to other subjects and ideas.

I decided that I still have a lot to do and explore in the world of lowriding. Also, lowriders mean a lot to me. From cruisin' with my uncle in his mini truck, to ridin' around with the homies in their lowered Cadis, to street racing in my slammed Civic, to cruisin' on 3 in the homies' Cadis... I've had a lot of great times, thanks to lowriding. For these reasons I decided not to move on to something new. Instead, I want to keep learning more about the people and the cars that make up the lowrider culture. But, to make it easier for myself (so I don't feel so restricted), I've decided to start incorporating more abstract and creative styles into my lowrider photography and to start experimenting with new processes. I've also decided to start making more lowrider art aside from photography, like drawing, painting, and designing. In the face of doubt, I have been fortunate to find new inspiration.

This past Saturday, I went to 15th Street Cruise Night to begin testing new ideas on how to capture the cruises and all the energy that they create. 15th Street Cruise night is one of the best cruise nights in L.A. It's hosted by @Dangerustla81 and is always a good time. So it was the perfect place to go to get back into my groove and start testing ideas.

I wanted to do something fun and different, in addition to what I usually shoot. The first thing that came to mind was light painting. Although I still can't decide on how I am going to execute that ideas, it lead me to thinking about different things I could do with slow shutter & long exposure photography. I came up with a few new ideas, while I was on my way to the cruise. I also wanted to test some old techniques to see how I could apply them to the lowriders. By the time I got off the freeway, I had a short list of ideas to test and was the most hyped I've been about shooting in years.

I started off shooting hand held slow shutter shots (.08 - 1 second exposure times) to see if I could make the lights trail without blurring the cars too much. I got a handful of shots that I liked, out of a shitload of tries. But I started to understand the process and was able to get to the point were I felt like I could control the shot enough to get what I wanted out of the flicks.

I didn't want to get too abstract. I still shot a lot of the typical stuff that I shoot. Like some street photography, some lifestyle photography, some portraits, and some automotive shots. But I tried to limit those shots and keep myself in an experimental state of thinking.

I like combining time-lapse techniques and long exposure photography to make creative videos. So I got the tripod out and shot a lot of long exposure shots that I later assembled into a short time-lapse test. I'm not going to post the time-lapse because it was just a test. But I was really happy with how it came out. I will start making more of these videos at cruises, in the future, and sharing them. 

I also played around with the idea of trying to distort the lowriders with long exposure, in order to make them look like spaceships flying by. Or like ghostly glowing lowriders that you can see through. I had some success and a lot of failures. But over all, I brought home some flicks that I was not only happy with. But I was also inspired by some of them. As usual, I shot a lot. So I'll break up all the pics into multiple posts so it isn't just one giant post that no one will ever get to the end of. Without further delay, here's the first batch of flicks from 15th Street Cruise Night on Labor Day Weekend 2021...

There's a lot more left from 15th Street (not to mention the 80 other cruises and car shows that I still have to edit and post). So make sure to check back soon for more art, automobiles, and a whole lot more Bsombin'!

Michelangelo At The Crystal Cathedral (10-02-19) - Part 5

 Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the blog! This is the last post from the Crystal Cathedral trip. I took so many pictures while I was waiting for my aunts to finish looking at the Michelangelo exhibit. So I wanted to post a few more flicks of the architecture and show you what the building actually looked like. I want this post to be a little different from the last. Which is why I chose to go with color images this time.

I hope you enjoyed the Michelangelo exhibit and the architectural photography. It's been a while since I shot anything like these pictures. But, going through them made me want to shoot more abstract architecture. I'll be posting more abstract architecture (both old and new), soon, along with a lot more automotive photography (lots of lowriders and supercars comin' up), some new poetry, and lots of art and calligraphy! So be sure to check back soon for more Bsombin'!

Michelangelo At The Crystal Cathedral (10-02-19) - Part 4

I've been sharing some of my pictures from a trip to the Crystal Cathedral to see a Michelangelo exhibit back in October of 2019. In the last post I shared some of the pictures I took of the inside of the building were the exhibit was. I've been calling it a museum, because of Michelangelo's exhibit. But I honestly don't think it was a museum or even a gallery. There was no other art in the building. So I'm not really sure what the church used the building for. Regardless, it was a really cool looking build and I took a lot of pictures of it! 

I feel like distorting the architecture is a lot easier on the outside of a building compared to the building's interior. Which is why these shots are a lot more abstract than the ones on the last post. I like to play with the lines on a building and turn the structures into abstract geometry. The more modern the architecture is, the more I can play with it to make it look like anything but a building. Sometimes they look like geometric patterns. Other times they look like robots and spaceships. In this case, the building already looked like a space ship. Which made it easy to find ways to brake it down into abstractions. To me, this set of shots had a Sci-Fi / Fantasy art feel to them. Here are some of the ones I liked the most.

Michelangelo At The Crystal Cathedral (10-02-19) - Part 3

 Thanks for checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! My trip to the Michelangelo exhibit back in October of 2019 turned out to be more of an abstract architecture shoot than a trip to see an art display. Both the Crystal Cathedral and the museum building where the Michelangelo exhibit was are beautiful displays of modern architecture. I was much more impressed by the buildings than I was by the exhibit. So I actually spend more time outside of the museum shooting the build than I did looking at the exhibit. I wanted to share some of the pictures I took of the build. So I'll start with the pictures I took of the inside of the build.

 Check back soon for some images from the outside of this amazing structure...

Michelangelo At The Crystal Cathedral (10-02-19) - Part 2

 Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the blog! Can't believe it's been over a month since the last time I posted! I've been working so much, lately. And there's so much I haven't been able to do because of it. But once I realized how long it's been since my last post, I didn't want to go any longer without a new post. So let's get back to Michelangelo at the Crystal Cathedral. This is going to be a big post...

When my aunts invited me to go with them to see Michelangelo, I didn't know what to expect. I knew I wasn't going to see his actual paintings, since they are priceless works of art that don't usually travel anywhere. So I was curious to see how his work was going to be presented. When we walked in to the exhibit, I was surprise to see large prints on fabric being displayed. The exhibit was made up of several large tarps with scenes from the Sistine Chapel printed on them. They were accompanied by short stories and explanations that were printed on large signs displayed next to (or below) the tarps. Most of the tarps were strung up vertically (like walls divining the room) while others were hung over head as if they were part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. In a small room just past the main display, there was a section that showed the scene of "The Last Judgement" as it's painted on the alter wall of the Sistine Chapel. Just outside of the small room was a section of the main room where a short film about Michelangelo's life was showing on a TV. There were several benches for people to sit and watch the film. So I took a seat and learned a little about an amazing artist. Like how he was commissioned by the Pope to paint the chapel and how it took him 4 years to finish painting the ceiling. The main exhibit was small and didn't take long to get through. So I was able to just look at everything and take it all in before going back and taking pictures of everything. I shot everything in order and took pictures of all the tarps (as well as the explanations that went along with them) to share with you all. So with out any further delay, here's the Michelangelo exhibit from the Crystal Cathedral...

 That's it for Michelangelo. But I still have a few more architecture posts from the Museum. The museum was a work of art in itself. The architecture of the museum is also very modern. It almost looks like a spaceship. So I had to take a minute to run around and shoot the building. I was able to get some interesting abstract shots from both the inside and outside of the building. So check back soon for some more architecture, more lowriders, some supercars, and some recent art shows that I've had a chance to check out...